


How Many Secrets Can You Keep?

by thecheshirepussycat



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Betrayal, Gun Violence, M/M, Partner Betrayal, Spies & Secret Agents, Violence, anger issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-26
Updated: 2014-01-08
Packaged: 2018-01-06 04:12:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 19,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1102258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecheshirepussycat/pseuds/thecheshirepussycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a spy meant always keeping your emotions in check. It looked and sounded good in theory, but in practice things like soulmates and trusted bonds of friendship got in the way. The real key to being a spy was keeping your emotions a secret.</p>
<p>Or: Harry and Louis are partners and agents for MI6, but their worlds are torn apart when Harry goes rogue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deadbattery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadbattery/gifts), [chocolate_shreddies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chocolate_shreddies/gifts).



> This was my Christmas gift to the darling Eleanor and my lovely Olivia! Both of which serve as a big inspiration to me and this fic :)
> 
> I don't know why there aren't more Spy!Au's in this fandom...

**We’ll always have Paris.**

Louis stared at the very tattered and slightly burned piece of paper left to him on the bed. The other agents were finishing up their search of the house, looking for any clue as to where their mark had gone. Louis new that search would come up empty, he knew their mark better than anyone, but he didn’t feel like telling them that just yet.

The room was ransacked, destroyed when the siege began. Bullet holes covered the walls and every piece of furniture had been over turned and smashed. The mirror was broken into hundreds of tiny shards, Louis didn’t even want to think about what that meant for their luck. No trace of him was left behind. Not a single thing except that pathetic note. As if one sentence was going to make up for everything.

“Agent Tomlinson?” Agent Malik, Zayn as he would ask Louis numerous times to call him, stepped into the room. He had his long range riffle propped up over his shoulder and was clearing the other agents out of the room.

“He’s gone.” Louis said, shoving the note into the officer’s hands. “Long gone. He would have covered all his bases and of course that fucking slip of paper is all that’s left. You won’t even find finger prints on it, he’s smarter than that.”

“Louis, I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything.”

Zayn read the note. “What happened in Paris?”

“Doesn’t matter now.” Louis snapped. Even though it most certainly mattered because the memories of Paris should have been comforting to Louis.

Another agent came out from the bathroom connected to the master and held in his hands a small device that certainly was not MI6 tech. “Sir, this was on the counter in there. I dusted for prints but it was clean. Should we call Horan in?”

But Niall was already running into the room, stumbling on a turned over chair. He pushed his glasses up the crook of his nose with his middle finger and gestured for the device. “Already here actually. Now give me that, although I think I’ve already got an idea as to what it is.” He took a moment to inspect it, turning it over a few times and looking closely. “It’s definitely one of the Ring’s devices. Looks like some sort of cellphone. This is probably how they were able to communicate with him without us knowing.”

Louis let out a long sigh and sat back down on the bed. “It’s all so real isn’t it? This happened and he—he didn’t tell me a thing.”

Niall put a comforting hand on Louis’ shoulder. “I know he was your partner and—“

“Niall!” Zayn hissed. He shook his head vigorously so the analyst knew to stop talking. He set his riffle down and sat next to Louis on the bed, handing him back the note. “Look, we don’t have to talk about this like it’s personal. I’ll brief Sergeant Payne on our findings and you can just go back to base and recover if you want.”

“Thank you Zayn, but the thing is, it _is_ personal. This was _my_ partner. My Harry, my—” he cut himself off. Only a few people knew about his and Harry’s not-so-professional relationship. Zayn and Niall knew, but the other minor officers in the room had no idea. It wasn’t exactly ideal in their profession. “You know what? You go ahead and do the report to Payne. I-I need some time to think.”

Zayn nodded without another word and gave the order to start the cleanup to the other agents. Niall stayed next to Louis for a moment longer, peeping his eyes down at the man’s note. “Paris? Why Paris?”

~~~

He should have known it would come down to this. The agency would never find anyone better to locate their rogue spy then the person who fought by his side for almost three years. Nobody knew Agent Harry Styles better than Louis Tomlinson did. When Zayn passed on the information of the previous night to Sergeant Payne, their boss was not happy to say the least. He did quite a bit of yelling before Louis was called in and informed that he would be charged with the mission of finding Harry. He agreed, reluctantly, but only if he could choose his own team.

“Alright, you can have your own damn team.” Liam sighed, rubbing his temples. Louis hadn’t seen him in person in quite some time, having made most of their conversations over the phone or through video. They were at the academy together, and used to be close friends, but Louis went the field course and Liam was promoted to Commander Status, thus becoming his boss. “I just don’t understand how none of us knew. How _you_ didn’t know.”

“Trust me when I say I’ve been asking myself that all fucking day.” Louis groaned. In any other commander’s presence he would not have spoken so harshly, but it was Liam. Liam was the third and final person who knew about him and Harry. “I just don’t understand. Not only were we partners and that comes with a certain trust, but for god’s sake! He and I were—were… I don’t know what to call it!”

“Boyfriends. It’s really simple Louis. You thought he loved you.”

“Right. And that is a very different type of trust. A trust that I believed in more than the one that came with being Agent partners.” Louis said. He banged his fists down on the table several times, until Liam was coming over and holding him back.

“I can send someone else on this mission. I’m sure Zayn will be just fine going with his own team.” Liam said in a soothing tone.

Louis struggled against his grip, shaking his head. “No. I can do this. But I _only_ want Zayn and Niall on my team.”

“That’s fine. I’ll have a backup team ready if ever a time comes that you need to ambush. You know, if you find him.” Liam told him.

“Thank you sir.” With that Louis Left the room and entered back into the main section of their little base.

It was in the basement of a clothing store several streets away from MI6 Headquarters and across the street from the very apartment that Louis and Harry used to share. High tech computers and weapons shelves lined the walls, as well as several tangible file cases. Currently dozens of agents were running around, trying to get everything in order and looking for a bit of reason after losing one of their best agents.

Louis made his way through the small crowds and found Niall at his computer, typing away at some files and no doubt already knowing what Louis was going to tell him. Niall was the smartest and most talented analyst MI6 had seen in years and Louis always felt lucky to have him as a friend.

“Ni—”

“I’m on your team in the mission to search for Harry.”

Louis rolled his eyes. As much as he liked the odd little Irish man, he certainly never had a sense for manners. “Yes actually. Just you, me, and Zayn. I—”

“You only wanted people who knew Harry personally and, more importantly, about you and Harry, to be the primary search team.”

“You never fail to impress me.” Louis smirked.

“I try my best sir. Zayn is over by his precious weapons. I’ll put some things together and be in conference room 5 when you’re ready with him.” Niall said. He didn’t look up from his screen once during their conversation.

Zayn could, more often than not, be found with some sort of long range weapon in his hands. He was an expert marksmen and one of the best Snipers in the world. He actually held the record for longest on-target shot in the world. At the moment he was disassembling his rifle and putting it back in its case. He hadn’t spoken a word to anyone since his meeting with Liam. He and Harry had been friends, very good friends, and beside Louis, Zayn was the only person Harry had ever lost control over his emotions for.

Being a spy meant always keeping your emotions in check. It looked and sounded good in theory, but in practice things like soulmates and trusted bonds of friendship got in the way. The real key to being a spy was keeping your emotions a secret.

“Agent Malik.”

Zayn glanced up from his gun case. “I’m never going to have stop telling you to just call me Zayn, am I?”

“I’m trying to be professional. I lost it a bit earlier.”

“You had every right to Louis!” Zayn sighed, slamming the case closed, making Louis jump slightly. “I don’t how you can—no. I‘m not going to get into that just yet. What did Liam say?”

Louis sat down at the table. “I’m in charge of the mission to find Harry. He figured nobody knew him better than me, so I could find him faster. Niall’s in and I want you too.”

Zayn actually laughed at that one. “You think I want to help these people find Harry? I can’t believe you would even be involved in this shit.”

“I don’t have a choice Zayn!” Louis yelled. “I thought I knew him. I thought… you know exactly what I thought and then this shit happens! But maybe I want to be the one to find him, with his only two friends, so that maybe we can talk some sense in him. Maybe nothing is what it seems to be! I don’t know! But I fucking know that you wouldn’t want any brainwashed robot who knows nothing about our boy to find him and kill him on the spot!”

Louis hung in his head in his hands and pulled at his hair. This was the single worst day of his life, and he did not need Zayn being difficult with him to make it worse. “Okay. You make a very good point.”

“You’ll do it?”

“I’ll do it.”

They walked together to conference room 5 and sure enough, Niall already had mission files together and a presentation on the big touch screen. Almost no manners but nobody could say he wasn’t efficient. Louis and Zayn each picked up a file, but didn’t bother reading it. They already knew most of the story.

“Niall, this is really nice, and I’m glad we will have this on the mission, but it’s a bit much right now.” Louis told him.

There was a beat of silence where you could see shear panic and confusion in Niall’s pale blue eyes before he was shaking himself out of it. “Well… is there anything you need to know?”

“How Harry’s involvements with the Ring got exposed to our superiors when we didn’t even have any idea?” Louis asked quickly.

The Ring was a rogue operation going within the MI6 forces. It was formed by certain spies that wanted to run the organization on their own terms and possibly control all the worlds’ governments. There were agents defecting to their secret group every left and right, but nobody saw Harry coming. He was one of MI6’s most loyal agents and never gave any sign of dissatisfaction within the station. Louis never would have thought he was capable of such treason.

“Nobody really knows why just yet, but an unknown and so far untraceable source sent in several Ring files with members’ identification in them. Harry was among them and then yesterday morning while you were gone, he ran just before your apartment was overrun by our forces.” Niall said. His voice was quick and calculated, easily mistakable for a robot, but Louis knew he was just trying to treat it like any other mission. Like this wasn’t very, very personal to the three of them.

“And our mission is just to find the smartest MI6 agent in our midst, who, I should point out, was fooling us for who knows how long?” Zayn asked angrily. Louis flinched at the comment about being fooled; somewhere in the back of his mind he could just feel like that wasn’t true. “How the fuck are we supposed to do that?”

The men sat in silence for a moment before Louis was pulling Harry’s note to him out of his pocket. “What if Harry wants me to find him?” he said quietly. He glanced up at the two boys and frowned at their looks of apprehension. “Why would he leave a note to me if he was going full rogue? Especially one like this. ‘We’ll always have Paris’… it _means_ something to us. I-I think it’s some sort of clue on how to find him.”

“Okay, well then what does it mean?” Zayn asked.

Louis thought for a moment about it. They had only ever been to Paris once and it had been a very successful mission, as well as a very romantic week for them. “How do you boys feel about fancy hotels?”

~ ~ ~

_It was much too over done for a simple week long mission, but Louis understood why Harry got this room. Spending the week in Paris with your significant other didn’t happen very often and he intended to make the most of it. So Harry pulled for the most expensive room in the most expensive hotel with the most perfect view of the Eiffel Tower, and told their superiors that it was vital to mission surveillance. Which wasn’t a total lie because their rom did happen to be a floor above their mark’s, but that was really beside the point._

_Harry walked back into the bathroom and to the bubble bath that Louis was currently resting in. He had the case file in hand, no clothes on his body and a huge smile plastered across his dimpled cheeks. But he thought Louis looked down right adorable sitting in the pink bubbles with his legs resting on the side of the tub, feet pointed._

_“You look gorgeous darling.” Harry said leaning down and kissing Louis’ still dry hair. “Scoot up for me though and let’s go over the plan again.”_

_Louis moved his body forward up the tub and Harry settled behind him, the smaller spy rested between his legs. “I already know the plan, let’s just sit here yeah?”_

_Harry kissed Louis’ neck soothingly. “Louis, just one more time for me okay? And then you can choose how we spend the rest of the night. And the whole trip if you want, I mean if we succeed tomorrow then we will still have four days here.”_

_Louis groaned but relented to Harry’s request. “Fine. Go ahead then.”_

_“Thank you babes.” Harry chirped with a quick kiss to Louis’ cheek. “So first, our mark is—”_

_“Armand Devereaux. French dignitary and now known terrorist spy. Wanted for trading information on British secret information as well as French and several others.”_

_“Good. Our mission is to—”_

_“Terminate the mark and download his contact list.”_

_“And how will we be doing this?”_

_“Tomorrow night at 1800 hours we break into the mark’s room and steal his computer. Then we will await his arrival after which we will gun him down, leaving no evidence of ourselves behind.”_

_“It should look like a random hit. And it could be from a number of countries.”_

_Louis took the file out of Harry’s hands and threw it across the room, earning him a pout. “And then you and I will be secret heroes again… and come back here… and you can fuck me while we look out at the beautiful Paris skyline.”_

_Harry moaned at the thought. “God Lou… you really you can’t just say these things. How am I supposed to focus tomorrow knowing that is my reward?”_

_“Use it as your motivator dear.”_

_“I love you.”_

_Louis’ breath hitched. He shifted in the tub, bubbles flowing over the side, and looked directly in Harry’s eyes. “You love me?”_

_“Very much.”_

_“I love you too.”_

_+++_

_“Harry! Have you got the safe open yet? We don’t have much time before Armand gets back.” Louis called out from his post watching the door._

_Harry was in the bedroom, trying his best at cracking open the safe that held Armand’s computer and all the information they needed. “Almost got it babes!” Harry punched in a few more numbers and soon heard the unlocking click. He yanked open the door and grabbed the computer, but didn’t stop there. He looked over his shoulder to make sure Louis was in fact, still out of the room, and he stole a small USB drive from the back of the safe as well._

_He carefully pocketed the GPS and closed the safe before running out to stand with Louis. “Everything alright Hazza?”_

_Harry subtly patted his pocket and pulled out his gun from its holster under his jacket. “Of course babes.”_

~ ~ ~

The team entered the lobby of the hotel, covers intact and every exit checked out. Zayn checked them into the same room Harry and Louis had stayed in that same night almost two years ago. He could barely get himself to walk into the room, but managed after Zayn reminded him that this would all help them find Harry.

The room below them was occupied by some rich family and Louis honestly had no idea where to go from there. The clue definitely led to Paris and probably this hotel as he and Harry never really left it during their stay, but Louis didn’t know what the hell to look for next. Was Harry there? Or was there another clue to look for? Was the note even a clue at all?

“Where do we go from here sir?”

“I don’t fucking know Niall!” Louis snapped. He immediately regretted it though, Niall looked so disappointed. But it wasn’t like any of this was Louis’ fault. “I’m sorry. Maybe something is in the safe he had to break into but I just don’t know.”

Louis walked past the two agents and into the bathroom. He turned on the sink and splashed some water into his face before looking up at the mirror and at the bath through it. He could just see him and Harry laughing and kissing in the bubbles.

_“I love you.”_

_“You love me?”_

_“Very much.”_

Louis couldn’t handle it. The amount of betrayal gushing through his heart made it hard to breathe and before he knew it he was screaming. He pulled the mirror right off the wall and threw it at the wall above the bath.

It shattered into pieces and Zayn and Niall ran into the room to find Louis smashing the tiles on the wall in a rage. Zayn surged forward and grabbed at Louis’ back, but he was easily pushed back. Louis kept wailing on the wall, throwing punches at nothing but white tile until his hands were bleeding.

“Louis!” Zayn yelled, tackling the distraught man to the ground by his waist. He pinned Louis’ hands down and when he looked at his face he saw that Louis’ eyes were dark and stained with tears. “What are you doing?”

“I-I don’t know! I’m so fucking confused and just—”

“Shhh, shh Louis calm down mate.” Zayn cooed.

Niall, who had been standing in shear shock and silence, walked over them and inspected the wall. “Either Louis is lot stronger than we think, or these aren’t normal bath tiles.” He poked one and it fell off the wall, showing a bit of writing underneath.

“Oh my god.” Louis pushed Zayn off him, wiped his eyes, and started taking off the rest of the tiles with Niall. “This room was the clue?”

They finished taking apart the wall and Niall read out “Ivan Petrov.” It was painted onto the back wall under the tile with no other hints around it. “Who is that?”

Louis wracked his brain for an answer. He knew that name. It was so fucking familiar; he just couldn’t place a face. Hundreds of past marks and spies’ faces ran through his head until finally it all stopped. “That’s the man from me and Harry’s first mission together. But that was over three years ago and his terrorist cell doesn’t even operate anymore. I don’t understand.”

Zayn stood up and dusted himself off. “Well, let’s call in to Sargent Payne and follow this lead. Where was your first mission?”

“Erm, St. Petersburg in this old warehouse that was hiding a mass shipment of weapons. Our job was to take in Ivan, his dealer, and anyone he was selling to if they were there.” Louis said, but Niall had already brought up the file on his tablet.

“It says here you guys failed to bring him in?” He asked.

Louis shrugged. “We brought in the guy he was selling to, but Ivan proved to be a bit of a problem for us. Harry had to kill him.”

~ ~ ~

_His grip on Louis’ neck grew tighter as he slammed him against the brick wall. His breath stunk of vodka while he growled in Louis’ ear and spit on his face. “How did you get in here?”_

_Louis choked and tried to pry out of Ivan’s grip but he was too weak. Ivan let go suddenly and Louis slumped to the ground. Where the fuck was his partner? Ivan kicked Louis in the stomach a few times and pulled a gun out of his pocket. He aimed it at Louis’ head but before he could pull the trigger, a knife flew just by his head._

_"I wouldn’t do that if I were you." Agent Style’s voice sounded from the other end of the huge storage room. He had a second knife in his hand a cold scowl on his face. "In fact, if I were you I would be surrendering right now, I would hate to have to use my other knife."_

_Ivan scoffed. “You think I’m afraid of you?” He grabbed Louis’ hair and yanked him off the ground, digging the gun into his skull. “How about you run along before my men get here and I don’t blow your friend’s head off?”_

_Harry kept his knife up but put a hand on the gun in his back holster. He started walking slowly towards them, eyes never leaving Louis’ bloody face. “Hate to be the one to tell you this, but your men have been detained already by our SWAT team. It’s just us three here now. So I’m going to say it again; let him go.”_

_"Can’t do that. But I don’t want to kill your friend here. He’s so pretty you see, I might want to keep him as my own little pet." Harry threw the other knife at him in a rage but the Russian dodged it. He pointed the gun at Louis’ jaw and held Louis in front of his body as a shield. "You stupid cunt! I’m going to kill him if you do not run now!"_

_Harry tensed up but softened a bit when he saw Louis crack his eyes open a bit. Louis coughed but managed to force out a message. “Imate li me?”_

_It was in Bosnian, a language Louis learned Harry also knew when they were making small talk after just being assigned together. **Do you have me?**_

_"Uvijek." **Always.**_

_Harry clicked off the safety on is gun and took one shot at the very small target of Ivan’s head. He was down in a second, bringing Louis to the floor with him, but Louis was okay. Harry ran over and helped Louis get up, carrying him off his feet._

_"So that’s a failed mission then."_

_"What are you talking about? I got the dealer and a few of the buyers, plus I saved you. I’d say it was pretty successful." Harry said._

_Louis wanted to roll his eyes, but frankly his whole face hurt too much. “You shouldn’t have killed Petrov. We needed him for questioning.”_

_"Well, I couldn’t very well let him kill my new partner." Harry said. He was smiling and Louis found it very odd. This new person was certainly different from his last partner. "What do you say we celebrate our first job, of hopefully many, by letting me cook you some dinner and clean you up tonight?"_

_Louis’ jaw dropped, quickly picking up his flirtatious tone. “I guess it’s only fair.”_

~ ~ ~

They were on a flight to St. Petersburg within 24 hours of finding the message. Liam had been extremely angry over the phone when he was told they were being led on a bit of a chase. Nevertheless he arranged for a private jet and gave them access to the old case files. They spent the whole trip reading the files over and checking each detail, trying to find some better clue than a warehouse.

"Maybe Ivan had a hideout besides the warehouse and the clue is there." Niall suggested.

Louis just groaned and threw the file down. “No, no we never went anywhere but that warehouse. If Harry is trying to lead me to something then it wouldn’t be anywhere but the places the mission took us.”

"Okay, but this warehouse looks huge by these blueprints." Zayn said, looking over the large map they were given of it. "Do you think it could be in the corridor where Ivan was killed?"

"Probably. I just don’t know." Louis voice was filled with defeat. He was growing so tired of this already. "Let’s just… see if there is anything in this warehouse. We can tear down the whole bloody place for all I care."

Niall and Zayn exchanged a look and then started to put away the map. It was almost silent for the rest of the ride, with Louis mostly staring out the window and thinking. Thinking about Harry and their mission, thinking about all that had happened recently, and wracking his brain for the reasons why. Why were they on this seemingly wild goose chase. Why would Harry lie to him so long and for any reason at all? Was he planning on recruiting Louis into the Ring? Was he using Louis for information for the Ring? Did Louis just imagine all those times when Harry kissed him, or said he loved him, or seemed to care at all?

Eventually Louis couldn’t stand the tension he had brought up in the cabin and he got up to make himself a drink in the dining area one section over. A strong drink that would numb him until he was ready to get this whole thing over with. But he somehow knew that this wouldn’t end in St. Petersburg. Harry was too smart and too clever for this sort of game. He was following these clues set for him for a reason.

"Z, do you think it’s really a good idea to have Louis on this mission?" Niall asked when he was sure Louis couldn’t hear them.

Zayn sighed. “It’s like everyone’s been saying; he knows Harry better than everyone.”

"Yeah but… he destroyed a tile wall. He broke is apart all by himself." Niall pointed out, pushing his glasses up his nose. "It’s like he’s losing his mind. His emotions are clouding every logic he has, I just know it."

"Niall! We can’t do much else! Harry left that clue specifically for Louis!" Zayn snapped.

Their plane landed and Zayn and Niall thought it would be best to take a break at the hotel first, Louis didn’t bother arguing with them. The hotel was about a block away from the warehouse, close enough that they could see their mark from their own room window. It didn’t look like it was still active, probably just used for storage now, but occasionally someone would walk in and out of its entrance.

"I say we make a plan quickly and break in tomorrow night." Louis suggested.

Niall pulled up all the info he needed on the warehouse’s security system, not that it was that extensive, and Zayn started getting some weapons ready just in case. “It looks like there are cameras covering every entrance and window, but it doesn’t seem to have anything else anymore. I guess since Petrov was terminated his organization stopped using this place. All the extra security must have been removed.”

Zayn loaded two of his pistols and then started up on Louis’. “What about human security? Are there any night guards to worry about?”

"Doesn’t look like it."

"Good, then we won’t need these." Louis said, taking his pistol away from Zayn, who hadn’t finished loading it.

"Speak for yourself Tomlinson. You never know who could pop in."

Louis rolled his eyes and put his gun back in its case. “This should be a quick in and out search. I don’t want any more trouble than it has to be. My last experience here wasn’t exactly all that great.”

Again the topic was dropped and Niall and Zayn left Louis alone for the rest of the night. Not that he was going to be able to sleep.

~ ~ ~

Zayn and Louis ran over the roof and to the small skylight on the eastern side. Niall found the tiny hole in the camera security and figured out that they could lower Louis down directly to the place Petrov was killed. When they found the hatch, Zayn unscrewed it and pried it open while Louis kept watch.

Niall was keeping watch from their hotel room, as he was able to see and operate their tech from it. “Okay, Tomlinson it’s looks like everything is all clear below you, so Malik just let him down gently. There shouldn’t be any security coming nor sensors of any sort, but you shouldn’t make too much noise just in case.”

"Copy that Horan." Zayn whispered. He tied the black rope tightly around Louis’ waist and stepped aside so the smaller agent could drop down. "Easy now Louis, I’m taking you down slow."

Louis nodded and grabbed the end of the rope, jumping slightly into the hatch. He stopped about halfway down the 30 foot drop so Zayn could do the rest of the lowering at his own pace. So far everything was good, but the warehouse was dark and eerily silent, not at all how Louis remembered it.

"Zayn?" Louis called up as quiet as he could. "Just let me suspend about three feet above ground, yeah? I’m gonna take a flashlight to the walls. If I see anything you can just take me back up faster."

"Copy Tomlinson." Zayn let the rope fall a couple more feet until Louis was right where he wanted to be. Louis reached into one of the pockets in his pants and pulled out the tiny flashlight he kept there. It just took a quick survey of the walls, floor, and ceiling for Louis to see that there was nothing written for him. "See anything yet?"

Louis sighed. “Not yet. I’m gonna hit ground and walk around a bit, be ready to take me back up though.”

"Alright. Careful down there." Zayn said, releasing the rope the last couple feel and then tying it up.

Louis untied the rope from around his waist and ran to the nearest wall, crouching down and running the flashlight ahead of him. He started walking lowly along the wall until he reached the entrance to the next hallway. He peaked his around carefully, even though Niall said there wouldn’t be anyone inside.

Louis sat down and looked around. He was caught with flashes of the last time he was there. When he was sitting in this same spot and Petrov came up behind him with a gun in his hands. When he was choked to the point he could barely see anything until Harry came to his rescue. When Harry killed the very person they were in that building to capture just to save Louis’ life. They barely even knew each other at that point and Harry risked their whole mission, probably his job, to keep Louis alive.

"Tomlinson?" Niall’s voice came in through Louis’ earpiece. "Did you find anything?"

"No." Louis took one last long look around to make sure. "Nothing that I can see. Just a fucking empty room and a fucking dead end." He threw the flashlight across the room and groaned in frustration, screaming silently into his hands.

Both Niall and Zayn flinched when they heard Louis’ outburst. He was getting so much worse with everything, but at least he wasn’t trying to smash in the walls again. Louis stood up after calming himself and walked over to retrieve his flashlight before tying himself back onto the rope. He tugged it a couple times and Zayn pulled him back up.

Louis looked miserable when Zayn helped him out of the skylight. “You sure you didn’t find anything?”

"Yes I’m fucking sure Zayn!" Louis sneered. "Let’s just get the fuck out of here."

"Hey!" Zayn grabbed onto Louis’ arm and didn’t let him move. "Are you okay?"

"No I’m not fucking okay! I don’t fucking understand what we are doing here! I have no idea what Harry is trying to do with all of this bullshit! A-and I’m starting to think I don’t know what was ever going through his head! I-I mean when we were on this mission he fucking killed someone for me! We had only just met and he—"

Louis stopped when he realized what he was saying. He suddenly got an idea, and while it was a really long shot it was the only possible thing that would make sense.

Zayn waived a hand in front of Louis’ face. “Louis? What’s wrong?”

"W-we only just met. We just _met_. T-This wasn’t about Petrov, it was about me and Harry. B-But we didn’t meet here, we met in just a random conference room in the London headquarters.” Louis spoke quickly and wiggled out of Zayn’s hand before running back to where they scaled the building.

Zayn ran after him calling out as quietly as he could. “What’s going on Louis?”

"London! We have to go back there!" Louis threw his zip down the side of the warehouse and slipped down, with Zayn following close behind. When they were walking away, Louis pressed his finger to his earpiece. "Niall? Does it say anywhere in that file where the first briefing was held?"

"Um," Niall switched his chair around to his second computer and pulled the original file up again. "Yeah, I’ve got it all right here, even a full transcript of the meeting, and a bit before and after it after it started."

"Perfect! Call Payne and tell him we will be needing that room ASAP, there’s something in that room we will need."

~~~

"What are we doing here Tomlinson?" Liam asked, rather annoyed that this mission wasn’t over as fast as he thought it would be. When Niall called in about the briefing room, Liam had hoped it would mean they actually caught Harry, but no. It was just another lead to follow.

Louis was running around the room, looking around the lines of the walls and under the tables and chairs. “There’s something in here. Harry left some sort of clue or message for me, I know he did.”

Niall was standing by the door and Zayn sitting in one of the chairs at the main table, while Lima stood by him, arms crossed over his chest in annoyance. They watched as Louis tore the room apart but continued to find nothing, growing more and more frustrated by the second. When he looked like he was close to breaking the wall open again, Niall stood up with his printed out version of the case file.

"Agent Tomlinson, maybe we should take a look at the file again? You could be wrong."

Louis was halfway through picking up a chair to look at the underside, when he stopped and glared at Niall. He was a second away from throwing the chair at the Techie’s head when Zayn jumped up and ripped it from his hands. “Wrong? _Wrong?_ How can I be wrong? I’m supposed to be the one who knows him the most right? I’m supposed to be the _only one_ who can figure this shit out, right? So please, _Horan_ , tell me just how I am wrong?”

Zayn pushed Louis back against the wall. “Watch it! I know this shit is harder than anything you’ve ever done, but we are just trying to help you. Now think about that meeting and maybe something else that is fucking helpful instead of just tossing shit everywhere.”

Zayn released him, but Louis was still seething. He mumbled an apology to Niall and looked around the disheveled room. He closed his eyes and thought back to that day, but all he could remember was Harry walking through the door looking gorgeous as all get out, and with a ridiculous smile on his face. “I was sitting at the end of the table and he walked in and sat across from me. We greeted each other, got our orders and that was it. I mean, then we were left alone in here to sort of, properly get to know each other, but Harry said it would be more fun to do that over food. So we left—”

Louis stopped when he looked up above the door. The walls were mostly cement and white and boring, but the center one above the door had cracks going all around it. Almost as if it had been carved out. So, Louis pushed Zayn out of his way, grabbed one of the chairs, and jumped up to further examine it. He pulled one of his knives out of its band on his waist and started cutting into the tile.

"Tomlinson! What fuck are—" Liam stopped yelling when Louis pulled the block out and saw the small USB port hidden behind it. "How the fuck did he get that there?"

"He has an IQ of 151, this was probably cake." Louis said as he hopped off the chair and handed the USB to Niall. "What’s on this?"

Niall took it and sighed as he connected it into his computer. “This better not damage my computer Tomlinson.”

Niall set the computer on the table and opened up the single file on the USB. The group watched as the screen turned black and one message was typed across the screen.

**When In Rome.**

Louis wanted to shoot something. Maybe Harry, maybe the next person to be near him when he had a gun. Of course it would just be another clue, what else was he expecting to find? It’s not like Harry could just be sitting in there, ready to be arrested.

"What does this one mean then?" Zayn asked Louis after a few seconds of tense silence.

"Well obviously we have to go to Rome Zayn." Louis grumbled.

Liam rubbed at his temples and paced next the table. Finally he let out an exasperated sigh and banged his fists onto the table, making the other Agents jump. “That’s it. I’m officially joining this team, because I need to make sure this gets done. nod if you all agree to this term.”

The three shared a look together but nodded. It might actually be a little better to have fresh mind helping them out, because theirs were getting fried. Liam nodded as well and walked out of the room. He wasn’t going to go easy on them.

Zayn put a hand on Louis’ shoulder and shook him reassuringly. “Payne can be a bit of a dick, but he knows Harry and he knows what he’s doing.”

"Right, yeah." Louis whispered, staring at the message.

"When were you in Rome?" Niall asked, pushing his glasses back up his nose.

Louis laughed, loud and tiredly. “Our anniversary.” He laughed a bit more and slumped into one of the extra chairs. This was the worst mission.

~~~

_He checked his phone for the fifth time that night and sighed when there was still no message from Harry. It was about a half hour into their anniversary dinner, but Louis’ boyfriend was nowhere to be found. It’s not like they were on a mission or anything, this was their first vacation in over two years and they were lucky that it fell on their anniversary._

_It took about two more minutes until Harry was bounding through the busy restaurant and over to the booth where Louis was sitting. “Babe, I am so sorry! I know I’m so late!”_

_"It’s fine Harry, it’s just our two year anniversary, no big deal." Louis said sarcastically._

_Harry mocked his pouty face as he sat down and handed Louis some roses. “I don’t think you will be this grumpy when you see why I was so late.”_

_Louis had to bite his lip to keep from smiling, he was so stubborn. “Oh? And why’s that?”_

_"Let’s just say there is something really special waiting at our hotel room." Harry said with a wink._

_"Two years and you still haven’t learned that I hate that stupid wink."_

_"Hey! That wink helped me seduce the mistress of Fabrizio Moretti."_

_Louis rolled his eyes and took a sip from his wine. “You will never stop bragging about that will you? Congrats you slept with the mistress of a drug lord!”_

_"Might not want to shout that too loudly. I mean, it was only last year just a few streets away we had to carry out that mission." Harry said. He looked around just in case, to make sure no one was listening to them. "And you know I didn’t actually sleep with her."_

_"Still, not the memory I want to relive on our special night." Louis grumbled, drinking down more of his wine. "And that mission was in Venice, not Rome. There’s a difference."_

_Harry smirked and held Louis’ hand on the table. “Of course babes, Rome has the Pope! Maybe we should pay him a visit tomorrow.”_

_"That’s Vatican City love." Louis said. He tried his hardest to sound annoyed but everything with Harry just came out as stupidly fond. "And I don’t think he wants people like us near him."_

_Harry scoffed, pretending like he was offended. “I doubt he would be able to know we are spies Lou.”_

_"No, not spies, I mean the whole two guys who fuck and are in love thing."_

_"I think once he sees how cute we are he might just change his mind about that." Harry said winking again. Louis threw a breadstick at his head._

_Harry poured himself a glass and waived over their waiter. Of course, all in the spirit of being in Italy, they both ordered some spaghetti and meatballs. Harry joked about recreating the scene from Lady and the Tramp. Louis wasn’t amused. He droned on about how they were in a fancy place as themselves for once and he was going to be on his best behavior no matter what. Harry shut him up with a kiss._

_+++_

_Their walk back to the hotel room took a detour down a dimly lit street. Eventually it took them over an empty bridge that had a perfect view of the streets of Rome in the moonlight. They stopped and looked out at the, taking in their moments of freedom from their ridiculously hectic and dangerous lives. Harry wrapped his arms around Louis’ waist and rested his head on Louis’ shoulder._

_"I wish it could just be like this all the time." Harry whispered before kissing Louis’ cheek._

_Louis sighed and flicked a pebble into the water. “I do to, but we have to go back to work eventually. We’re much too young to retire anyway.”_

_They both chuckled and Louis turned in Harry’s arms, kissing him deeply. Louis’ hands went up to tangle in Harry’s curls as the kiss grew more heated. His back hurt when Harry pushed him into the ledge of the bridge, but he didn’t care._

_There was a cough next to them, and Harry paused for a brief moment. He put a finger to Louis’ lips to make sure he didn’t say anything, as he turned his head slightly to look at the person a few feet away from him. Then he noticed there wasn’t just one person, but instead four people. Two walking up to them from either side._

_"Harry?" Louis whispered. "You didn’t happen to bring your gun did you?" Harry nodded his head subtly. "Good. Me to."_

_Harry moved his hands from Louis’ waist to around his back and into the holster that held his pistol, while Louis brought his left hand down to the gun behind Harry’s jacket. The men around them were still walking calmly, but now Louis could see each of them reach for their own guns._

_In a split second Louis and Harry jumped apart, guns blazing, and each took two shots before rolling to the ground. Louis hit both his targets in their shoulders, effectively taking them out, but Harry only got one of his. “Lou! Run this way!” Harry darted off the bridge the way they came and Louis followed quickly after, turning around to take another shot, but he missed the guy as well._

_They ran down several blocks, with the man still on their tails, but now four more thugs had joined him. Harry dragged Louis down an alley way by one of the buildings and they jumped onto one of the fire escapes to hide._

_"Harry, do you have any idea who’s facility this is?" Louis asked._

_Harry shushed him when he thought he saw the thugs pass the corner. But there was nobody there. “Yeah, it’s um… Isn’t it the hideout for Romano Costa?”_

_Costa was an Italian arms maker and dealer that MI6 had been tracking for a while now. Their case against him in several attempted attacks was slowly building, but Harry and Louis weren’t the agents on that mission. “Those must be his men chasing us.”_

_Harry hesitated for a moment, not looking directly at Louis. “Erm, yeah. Listen, while we’re here we may as well dip inside and see if we find anything…”_

_"Are you fucking insane? We could compromise ourselves and that entire mission!" Louis scolded. "Let’s just wait it out and go back to the hotel."_

_"Babes—"_

_"No! Harry it is our anniversary dammit and we are not spies right now." Louis said. He grabbed Harry’s face and turned it so he was looking him directly in the eyes. "Say you agree."_

_"Fine! Fine, I agree to not breaking into that building." Harry assured him._

_Before Louis could say anything else, the thugs were running down the alleyway and aiming their guns at them. Harry pushed Louis down flat on the escape top shield him from the oncoming bullets, and at the same time shot open one of the windows of the hideout. He didn’t give Louis a chance to protest before he was shoving him through the newly open window and jumping in after him._

_"What did I just say? Like a second ago?" Louis shouted when they landed about ten feet down._

_Harry helped him up and reloaded his gun, “I know, but it was either we fall in here or get shot out there. And that seemed like a much worse end to our anniversary than you yelling at me.”_

_Louis groaned in frustration, but reloaded his gun as well and surveyed the room they were in. “Looks like a supply closet to me.”_

_Harry nodded and cracked open the door enough to just see down the hall. “Coast looks clear.”_

_"Do you really think it would be smart to just walk through the building of someone on MI6’s most wanted list? Seriously Harry?" Louis asked, arms crossed over his chest in annoyance._

_But Harry just smiled and nodded. “Yes and I think we should walk right through the front door. But before we walk through the front door, I’m going to hack into the security and mess around with everyone for a bit. The confusion should be enough of a distraction for us to slip out unnoticed.”_

_Louis opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to think of a snarky reply, but he came up blank. “Dammit, that’s a good plan.”_

_+_

_"Hazza! I can see them coming down the hall hurry up!" Louis shouted, gun held up as he looked out the small window on the door._

_"I’m trying! It’s not exactly Tetris on here babes." Harry said quickly. He had his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and was typing away quickly on the main computer. Louis had taken his gun and was pointing both of them at the door, keeping watch for them, while the guards that were in the room were knocked out on the ground. Harry made sure Louis wasn’t looking, however, when he pulled several security codes and passwords from the dealer’s system. He jotted them down quickly and stuck the list of numbers in his back pocket._

_"I don’t think we’re gonna be able to just walk out the front door at this point." Louis said, taking a shot at one of the guards that was running up from the other end of the hall._

_"I know, but we can use the air duct system to get to the roof. I’ll get transportation from there." Harry said, triggering the final alarm and jumping out of his seat. "Come on just leave ‘em. They won’t catch us."_

_Louis took a couple more shots and managed to hit one of the guys, but let Harry drag him away from the door. “Wait!” Louis pointed his gun at the large window and took a couple shots, shattering it completely off. “They’ll think we jumped out.”_

_"Excellent thinking babes." Harry said with a kiss, before yanking off the cover of the air duct and letting Louis crawl in first. The duct was big enough for them to crawl, so Harry had room to reattach the cover before he followed Louis._

_They crawled through for a while before Louis felt he was getting lost. “Harry why aren’t you leading?”_

_"I was enjoying my view—oomf!"_

_Louis kicked back at Harry’s chest and then turned around. “If you didn’t already guess, we are not having sex tonight.”_

_Harry pouted but squeezed past Louis and took the lead. He directed them for a few more minutes until they got to the entrance to the roof. Harry kicked open the cover and crawled out into the chilling air, sending a hand out to help Louis get back up. They only had a moment to relax before they heard a banging on the real door to the roof and the shouts in Italian from the guards._

_"Fuck! Now what the fuck do we do?" Louis asked. He pulled his gun out again, but found that it was almost empty and he didn’t have any more rounds left to refill. "I’m running on practically empty here."_

_Harry held up a finger and got out his cell phone, sending out a text message and then getting out his own nearly empty gun. “I’ve got connections, our ride should be here shortly.”_

_The banging on the door got louder and suddenly they could hear gunshots; the guards were trying to shoot their way onto the roof. Louis grabbed Harry and shoved both of them behind a short wall on the roof. “Who? Who do you have all the way out here?”_

_"Sheeran. He’s in charge of the Costa mission. Plus he owes me a favor." Harry said, looking over the wall to make sure no one got out yet. "He sent us a helicopter, it should be here soon."_

_"Good." Louis said. But the roof door burst open and the guards started pouring out, firing at the couple at will. "Shit, how fast is it going to get here?"_

_"Not sure!" Harry shouted as he stood up and took two shots, hitting two of the guards and taking them out. He ducked back down for a second for cover and then reached out and took another shot, but he missed this time. "Fuck, I’ve got two more shots left!"_

_"I’ve got about five, Haz." Louis said dejectedly. "Da li zbogom zaista postoji?" **Does goodbye really exist?**_

_Harry sat down next to Louis and kissed him passionately. “Samo za sve ostale” **Only for everyone else.**_

_Then they both came out from behind their cover far enough for each of them to aim and shoot. Louis hit a guard with all five of his last shots, and Harry did the same with his two. But when they were out of bullets and ultimately out of time, Harry reached for one of his knives to throw at the three guards that were left, but Louis stopped him with a shake of his head and a hand on his wrist._

_Harry sat back down and held Louis’ hand. “We’re gonna die on our anniversary. What a tragically romantic way to go.”_

_Louis almost laughed, because yeah it would be horribly cliché, but very romantic. They could hear the guards shouting orders at each other, but then their helicopter was flying up ahead of them, bright lights shining over the roof._

_"Heard you needed a lift?" The pilot shouted and Harry and Louis both nodded and pointed back at their attackers. A shooter in the helicopter points a much bigger automatic at them and the guards back up, dropping their weapons and putting their hands in the air._

_A ladder is dropped down and Louis climbs on first, the shooter takes out the remaining thugs while he is climbing up. Harry follows close behind, after checking the contents of his back pocket one more time. Louis pulls him into the helicopter and they fly off of the roof._

_"Well, I don’t know how you are going to top this next year." Louis said sarcastically. Harry shushed him with a kiss._

_"You know you love me."_

_"Yeah, I guess I do."_

~~~

Having Liam around seemed to calm Louis down a bit. It was as if they were back in their academy days, talking in codes nobody but them knew, and leaning on each other for support. Rather, it was Louis leaning on Liam for support. He hadn’t an outburst, or even an urge to break anything since Liam had been there, and Niall and Zayn were very thankful for it. They even thought they caught him smiling for a moment at a joke Liam made.

But Liam was a bit different. He was still soft for Louis, but a hard ass to the other team members. He made sure they were always in line and ready with his orders. However, something about Liam just seemed off, like he was constantly on edge and under even more pressure than they thought. It just didn’t seem right to them.

"Niall! Did you find those floor plans for the Costa hideout yet?" Liam shouted. They were in a meeting room in the British Consulate making their plan of attack.

Niall ran back in with his computer in one hand and some printed out sheets in the other. “Right here sir! But the thing is—”

Louis took the papers from him and didn’t let him finish his thought before spreading them out and talking quickly. “Okay, right here is the window we broke into, and then we went down this hall to the stairs. Harry overheard a guard talking about the security room on the tenth floor, so we snuck up there using the service stairs.”

"How many floors is this building?"

"Guys—"

"Fifteen, and the air ducts go all the way up to roof, where Harry and I were rescued."

"Sir—"

"Do you think whatever Harry left would be on the roof then?"

"Maybe, but it could also be in the security room. I wouldn’t put it past Harry to leave something on the fire escape we hid on."

"Alright, the easiest route then would to just take the same path you did and then—"

"Sergeant Payne!" Niall shouted over the other agents. Zayn was smirking behind him, opting to stay out of it when Niall was yelling. "If you two could shut the fuck up for a second and let me talk!"

Liam and Louis glanced at each other and then back at Niall and the Sergeant nodded his head for Niall to continue. “Go on Horan.”

"Right." Niall moved the maps out of the way and set his computer down. On it was a picture of a destroyed building with smoke and fire still around it. "That building no longer exists. It was taken out by American Special Forces last year."

Louis stared at the picture on the screen and the mission info beneath it, then looked back over the physical maps before screaming at the top of his lungs. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

He grabbed the maps and ripped them in half, throwing them across the room. Niall grabbed his computer before Louis could throw that too, but the agent just kicked over a chair and banged his clenched fists on the table. Zayn jumped forward and yanked Louis’ arms behind his back, bringing them both down to kneel on the ground so Louis could calm down.

Liam sent away some security that came in when they heard the commotion and it wasn’t until he turned back around and sat down next to Louis that he saw he was crying. “Niall close that door and lock it.”

"Yes sir." Niall did as told, and then went back to the table and fixed the over turned chairs. They all helped Louis sit down in one and Niall handed him some water that was provided in the room.

Louis sobbed into his arms on the table, unable to control his emotions any further. All of it was too much. Harry shouldn’t be in this situation in the first place, but putting Louis through all of this was just cruel. If he didn’t love Louis before that was one thing. Louis could deal with that eventually. He could probably get over that given enough time. Maybe. But playing these games and making Louis relive all these once beautiful parts of his life was horrible. He didn’t think Harry was capable of this sort of torture. He didn’t think Harry would ever commit treason either though, so.

Niall started rubbing Louis’ back until he calmed down. “I-I did think of something else though.”

After another moment of self pity, Louis picked his head up and looked at Niall through red and wet eyes. “What?”

"It’s just…" Niall sucked in a breath and then stood up to start pacing and explaining his thought. "All of these clues and messages have been directed at Louis, so we know Harry wants to be found or is trying to say something. It could be a trap from the ring, but we know Louis is the obvious target. A-and all of the clues do have to do with some sort of mission or work related issue with them, but they also all line up with something about them personally."

The rest of the agents stared at Niall. Liam and Zayn a bit confused because all of this was information they already knew, but Louis was pensive, piecing together exactly what Niall had already figured out. “What was your thought Niall?” Zayn asked.

"Louis, Paris was where Harry first said ‘I love you’ to you. Then Petrov was your first mission, but Harry’s clue was where you first met. A-and I don’t know if he ever told you this, but he let slip to me on one of our old missions that it was love at first sight for him." Niall continued. Louis almost wanted to smile at that new piece of information, but all he did was let out another tear. "Then Rome is where you spent your second anniversary. Louis, I think the clues aren’t about the missions, but about your relationship."

There was a moment where everyone w silent. The other three letting it sink in that Niall was very right. It all made a lot more sense now, granted Louis still felt betrayed. “If you are right then whatever the message Harry left for me here is, it’s probably at the restaurant.”

~~~

At the restaurant only Zayn and Louis went in while Liam and Niall kept watch in a van on the other side of the street. Zayn had two guns hidden on his person, as well as a couple of knives, but Louis opted to stay unarmed. Something to him just didn’t seem like Harry planned a mass attack on them. They approached the host desk and waited until the man behind was done talking on the phone.

"Good evening! How may I help you gentlemen?" the man asked in a thick Italian accent with a large, almost fake, smile on his face.

Louis coughed. “Um, table for Louis Tomlinson.”

The host’s smile immediately dropped to a serious straight line. He called over one of the waiters and they whispered a few quick things to each other, looking at Louis quizzically a few times. Finally both men nodded to each other and the waiter turned back to Louis and Zayn with another fake smile.

"Follow me this way." The waiter led them towards the back of the restaurant but stopped in front of a table by a big window. Louis recognized it as the same one he and Harry sat at for their dinner. "I’ll be back soon with your menus."

Louis waited until the waiter was gone and then pressed into his earpiece. “This is definitely coming from Harry. I don’t see any messages yet, but it has to be close.”

Zayn and Louis tried to look around subtly for whatever the message could be, but came up with nothing. Just when Louis was getting ready to start throwing things again, the waiter came back. But he didn’t have menus; he just had a white envelope with Louis’ name written on it. In Harry’s handwriting.

"Mr. Tomlinson." Louis was handed the envelope and then they were left alone again. Zayn quirked an eyebrow as Louis just stared in disbelief.

Liam called in to them from their earpieces. “What’s going on now? You’re blocked from the cameras there.”

"It’s a letter." Zayn said as Louis carefully opened the seal. "He opened it."

Louis looked back up at Zayn for a moment of comfort, then began reading. “Here goes.”

**Dear Louis,**

**DO NOT READ THIS OUTLOUD NOR SHOW IT TO ANYONE. WE CAN’T TRUST ANYBODY.**

**Darling I am so sorry for everything. You have to know that all of it was unavoidable, but I wish so much that it was. I can’t stand hurting you like this, but that’s the way it has to be.**

**I can’t explain everything in this letter, it’s too dangerous. I can’t have the wrong people getting a hold of it and hurting you. Or me before I can just tell you everything. There’s so much explaining to do.**

**Meet me COMPLETELY ALONE on Thursday, 8 pm, at the address at the end of this letter. I will tell you everything but you cannot bring anyone else. Not even back up. I just don’t know who has already turned to them by now. If I even think anyone is with you, I’ll run again, but for god this time. I can’t risk it when you could be hurt.**

**I know once you hear my side you will trust me again. We can fix this, us, and so much more.**

**Love forever and always,**

**Your Harry.**

Under his signature was an address in the countryside by Louis’ childhood home in England. He folded up the letter and put it in his pocket. Zayn looked at him a bit confused when Louis didn’t tell him what the letter said and instead got up and started walking away.

Zayn jogged after him. “Louis? What’s going on? What did the letter say.”

Louis stopped for a moment outside the doors. He could tell Zayn right? And Liam and Niall? They were spies, yes, but they were also his friends. They were Harry’s friends. But then Harry must know who was on this mission with him. But what if that means Harry knows they can’t be trusted. What if this is all still a trick?

"I-I can’t tell you. On the letter, he said I couldn’t tell anyone or show it to anyone." Louis said quickly, continuing to walk to their van. "He wants me to meet him. I’m not saying when nor where. But that’s what he wrote."

"Just tell us so we can be your back up."

"No! I-I can’t! He said nobody else could be there! If he sees anyone else then he won’t talk to me." Louis snapped. "Zayn, this is my only chance."

They ran the rest of the way to the van and found Liam glaring at them. “You really aren’t going to show us that letter then?”

"Liam, I can convince him on my own to come in, I know I can. But if he runs again he will be lost forever. Please, just let me do this on my own." Louis pleaded.

The Sergeant sighed, but threw up his hands. “Fine. no back up, no tracker. But you better be able to bring him in. A lot of things are riding on this, and I can’t vouch for your job if you can’t get him back.”

"I understand sir." Louis said. He and Zayn climbed into the van and they drove back to their hotel for the night.

~~~

Niall ran back into Payne’s room and shut the door as quietly as he could. Zayn and Liam were already standing and waiting for him to deliver good news. Niall threw the letter on the bed and leaned back against the door.

"He’s sound asleep, but I want to get it back as soon as possible." Niall said in a whisper.

Zayn picked up the letter and started reading, handing it to Liam so he could see as well. “Should we trust it?”

"I think it’s definitely Harry." Liam said. "But there is no way in hell I am letting Louis go in without anyone. We will get a team together back in London and then follow him, but he can’t know."

"How do we know Harry won’t find out?" Niall asked.

"We don’t. Which is why I need you there, Zayn. If he looks like he’s going to run or attack Louis in anyway, you shoot to kill." Liam said, his voice low and dark, but unapologetic.

Zayn dropped the letter and backed up from him. “No fucking way. What if he’s innocent? I-I can’t do that to him.”

"I didn’t ask Zayn! That was an order and you will follow it!" Lima yelled. "Niall, get this letter back to Louis. And if either of you tell him anything, you will be charged with treason."

"I don’t like this at all, _Sir._ ” Zayn spat.

Liam sighed and sat down. “Look. I don’t either, but these are the hard decisions I have to make as your superior. The proof against Harry is full and long. The chances of him being innocent are slim to none. I’m sorry.”

Zayn scoffed and made his way to the door. “Sure you are.” He slammed the door.

_End of Part One._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very sorry about the cliffhanger ending but I am a drama queen so...


	2. Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being a spy meant always keeping your emotions in check. It looked and sounded good in theory, but in practice things like soulmates and trusted bonds of friendship got in the way. The real key to being a spy was keeping your emotions a secret.
> 
> Or: Harry and Louis are partners and agents for MI6, but their worlds are torn apart when Harry goes rogue.

_He’s staring at him. Louis can feel his eyes watching his profile carefully as they clean their weapons. They got back from a mission a couple days ago and were taking a break from work, which was nice because most of their guns were gross and a few of their knives were still covered in blood. But that’s what fighting 40 thugs off does._

_He often catches Harry staring at him. It’s nice to know that he’s watching him, whether they’re on a mission or just sitting at home like tonight. It’s always comforting to know he is there._

_"Babes, I’m going to step outside for a quick second." Harry said, his voice soft and smooth._

_"Something wrong?" Louis asked as he watched Harry get up and walk over to their balcony door._

_Harry stopped just outside the door and gave Louis a smile. “No, just wanna smoke.”_

_Louis shrugged and Harry closed the door carefully behind him. He walked to the farthest end of their balcony and pulled out the small device he kept hidden in his pocket. There was a message on the screen that said it was very urgent so Harry dialed the only number available._

_"Good evening Agent Styles." The voice on the other end was grainy and metallic. A mixture of all sorts of voices. "We have our final mission for you."_

_"Yes Sir." Harry said. He clicked a button on his watch and made sure his own tiny tracker was tracing the call. He had been so close during the last interaction, so close to finding out where and maybe who was on the other end of these secret missions. His actions were about three years in the making and it killed him inside each time he had to go behind Louis’ back to find this person. But it needed to be done. Nobody who had been recruited by the Ring that tried to find them had made it out alive this long._

_Louis told Harry about his last partner, Nick Grimshaw, who was assassinated by the Ring for an unknown reason. But Harry knew the reason. It was the same one that Harry was risking his own life for. To find the leader of the rogue cell in MI6 and take them down. Nick was being recruited just like he was, but he didn’t make it past a year of being recruited before the Ring took him out._

_"Your mission Agent Styles, will be your final test to proving yourself loyal and worthy to the Ring cause. If you should pass, you will be taken underground, hidden for some time and officially be a member of our forces. There is no going back after this. Do you understand?"_

_"Yes sir." The tracker on Harry’s watch was going through a map now, narrowing down the locations of the caller. "What is my mission?"_

_"You will be assassinating a fellow MI6 agent. This agent has been keeping watch on our movements and activities for a few years now, and he has been getting much too close discovering our operations. It’s an annoyance really, but also puts our entire cell in danger. You have twenty four hours to kill him and present his body to us, or you yourself will be taken out."_

_"Who is this agent?"_

_"Louis William Tomlinson."_

_Harry almost dropped the phone. He ran over to his door and looked inside to see Louis still calmly sitting on the bed. He swore to himself and looked down at his watch. The trace was almost complete and Harry just needed a little more time on the phone until he could find where this person was. “T-There has to be another person who can do this.”_

_"I had a feeling it would come to this. You really fell in love with him didn’t you? Shame you don’t think you will be able to pass this test. Because whether you take him out or not, Tomlinson will be dead by the end of the week."_

_"I-I won’t kill him! I’ll find all of the information he has on the Ring and I-I’ll delete it. I’ll make sure he can’t ever find out anything about you, but I will not kill him!" Harry pleaded with the voice. He knew it was no use, but at this point he was just stalling._

_"If you do not kill him, quickly and painfully, we will take him. And if we get him I can assure you that his death will be the farthest thing from quick. It will be slow and painful. We will torture him until he cannot remember his own name. And for more motivation, you will be forced to watch as your love loses his mind and begs for his death. Twenty four hours."_

_That did it for Harry. The call cut off and Harry threw the phone onto the ground. His watch narrowed down the location to a single street in London. A street that Harry knew very well, and his mind began to put together little pieces of the puzzle. He finally took out an actual cigarette and lit it, taking a drag as he got his thoughts together. There was only one thing left for Harry to do at this point, and he was not looking forward to it._

_Harry sat outside and smoked until Louis was opening the door and poking his head out to check on him. “You alright Harry? You’ve been out here a while.”_

_"I’m fine babes. Just thinking about things."_

_Louis smirked as he slid through the door and sat in one of the other chairs. “What things?”_

_Harry shrugged. He wanted to tell Louis. He wanted so bad to just come out with everything he hasn’t told Louis since they practically met. But he knows that will only put Louis in even more danger. “Nothing important. It’s a lovely night.”_

_And it really was. The stars were out and it was surprisingly warm, with the occasional gust of wind blowing by. Louis looked even more gorgeous than normal under the moonlight and Harry couldn’t believe this was his life. And it would be over tomorrow._

_Harry picked up Louis’ hand that was resting on the arm of the chair between them and stood up. Louis followed him with his eyes as Harry walked around and kneeled down in front of him. “I love you so much Louis.”_

_"I love you too." Louis said, only a tiny hint of suspicion. He leaned down and kissed Harry’s forehead then pulled Harry into his arms. They stayed like for a moment, even though Louis could tell something was wrong with Harry, he didn’t say anything about it. "Hazza, why don’t we go inside yeah?"_

_Harry nodded his head against Louis’ chest and stood up once more, helping Louis up as well. They walked back inside and as soon as the door was closed, Harry pushed Louis against it. He kissed him, slower than he thought he would. He was so desperate for a moment of closeness with his boy before he had to do the inevitable._

_"What brought this on?" Louis asked with a smirk. He touched his pink lips with one of his fingers and blushed. Harry hadn’t gotten this handsy with him in weeks because of their last mission._

_"I just love you a lot." Harry said as he bent down and kissed Louis again quickly. He then pulled back a bit and ran a hand up his neck, looking back in the room at his computer. "Babes, how about you go in our room and start prepping yourself for me? I need to do one thing and then I’m all yours."_

_Louis smiled so wide his face almost hurt and he kissed Harry’s cheek before running around him and taking off his clothes. Harry sighed as he watched Louis close the door and he walked over to his computer. So many of his personal files were open, along with a few Ring files about him. It was all going to end so quickly, he didn’t think he was ready._

_Harry set a timer on the files, knowing in a few hours all the data about him would be sent off and then deleted from his own hard drive. Nobody would know anything about this except him, and what they did know wouldn’t be good. When everything was all set Harry started unbuttoning his shirt and walking back to the bedroom._

_His heart stopped when he saw Louis lying on the bed, two fingers deep and big frown on his face. This right here was one of Harry’s favorite sights; Louis almost completely hard and waiting for Harry to touch him. Harry took longer tonight to stare at him, take in the scene and remember it as best he could when everything was over._

_"Hazza? Aren’t you c-coming to bed?" Louis asked nervously, pulling his fingers out and scooting back._

_Harry shook himself out of his thoughts and kneeled down on the end of the bed, shrugging his shirt off and letting it fall to the floor. “Come here babes.”_

_Louis sat up and crawled to Harry quickly, settling on his knees and sliding his hands up Harry’s bare chest and around his neck. “Yeah?”_

_The rest of their movements were fast. Harry kissed Louis again and grabbed Louis around the waist, squeezing tightly and picking Louis up. Harry leaned back and dragged Louis’ legs around his waist as he pushed them both forward onto the bed. Louis let go of Harry’s neck and started undoing his pants, both of them moaning when Harry’s erection was released._

_Louis started to turn over on his stomach, but Harry kept him still. He wanted to be able to see his face tonight. Louis spread his legs and reached blindly next him for their lube while Harry threw his pants and briefs off. Harry leaned down and kissed one of Louis’ knees as he took the lube from his hands._

_"Think you’re stretched enough babes?" Harry asked, slicking up his cock. When Louis nodded, Harry bent to kiss his stomach and line himself up, pushing his cock into Louis’ hole slowly._

_"Fuck." Louis whined and grabbed for Harry’s shoulders, pulling him closer so their chests could touch. He moaned again at the contact Harry’s abs had on his dick and each time he felt them drag along when Harry moved in and out of him at his slow pace. "Faster Hazza."_

_Harry hooked one of Louis’ knees over his elbow and Louis’ other leg over his shoulder before thrusting his hips in harder. Harry groaned at the new angle inside Louis and moved faster every time Louis let out a little high pitched whine. Louis’ hands were scratching at Harry’s shoulders and leaving marks in their wake while they moved together._

_Sweat rolled off both their bodies and mixed into the precum on Louis’ tummy. One of Louis’ hands slammed onto the pillow behind him and he yelped loudly when Harry started to drive into his prostate over and over again. Each noise from Louis pushed Harry closer, and closer to the edge, but he couldn’t come just yet. He needed to see Louis one last time before he had to go._

_"Babes, are you close?" Harry asked, getting a whimper and nod as his answer. Harry watched Louis’ face closely, etching each detail into his mind so he would never forget what this looked like._

_The way Louis had bitten his lips a bright red that faded into his pink skin. How his eyes were watery and wide, staring back up at Harry in awe. His hair was falling down into his forehead and sticking from all the sweat. Harry listened to every pant and moan coming from Louis’ mouth, and the slap of their skin growing faster and more desperate every second._

_"H-Harry please, I want you to come inside me Hazza." Louis gasped and clawed at Harry’s back. Harry grunted in response, rolling his hips deeper, feeling Louis clench up and shout his name, along with a few profanities, when he came untouched between them._

_Harry finally allowed himself to close his eyes and focus on his own pleasure heating up in the pit of his stomach. He panted out loudly and was only able to thrust a few more times before he was coming in long spurts inside of Louis, groaning with his release._

_They were breathing heavily and Louis was shaking beneath Harry, pushing up on his chest to get him off. Harry kissed Louis one more time before sitting up and pulling out carefully. He watched as his spunk started to leak out of Louis’ hole and subconsciously licked his lips. On a normal night ne would eat Louis out until he was clean, crying, and begging Harry to stop. But tonight he got all he needed from Louis; one last night of making love in case it never happened again._

_"I love you so much Harry." Louis whispered, eyes blinking up at the ceiling as he came down from his high._

_Harry cringed at his words. He wanted so badly to tell Louis everything, express everything he is feeling and done in a way that won’t make Louis hate him, but it’s never that simple. “I love you too Louis, more than you know. Do you want me to draw you a bath?”_

_Louis sat up on his elbow and wiggled around his bottom, squirming from the uncomfortable feeling of cum seeping out of him. All the same though, it wouldn’t be the first night he fell asleep this way. “No, I’ll shower in the morning. Just come back down here and hold me a while yeah?”_

_With a smile Harry nodded his head, lying down next to Louis and wrapping his arms around the smaller man’s waist from behind. It took only minutes for Louis to fall asleep and when he did, Harry stayed up longer. He was unable to sleep knowing that his information had been sent and his secrets were probably being read at that moment._

_+++_

_The next morning, Harry woke up early to the sound of the shower running and Louis singing some annoying pop song rather loudly. At least he had a beautiful voice or Harry would never let him get away with this sort of thing. It was after a moment of smiling to himself and humming along did Harry realize that this would be their last morning together._

_He pulled himself out of the bed, got himself dressed like any other day and walked into their kitchen, trying to think of a way to get Louis to leave before him. He walked to their refrigerator and pulled their list of groceries off the little notepad on the door, before opening said door and taking out the eggs. He knew Louis would question him, but Harry also knew that this would get him to leave the flat long enough for the nasty part to be over. So Harry took the eggs over to their window and tossed the carton out onto the street below._

_Louis walked out of their bedroom a few moments later, still drying his hair off with a towel, but fully dressed in casual wear. “Morning Hazza.” he said, dropping the towel and walking over to Harry to give him a kiss on the cheek. “Gonna make me some breakfast?”_

_"I was, but we’re out of eggs, babes." Harry shrugged._

_Louis hopped onto one of the seats at their counter and rested his head on his hands, elbows on the counter. “Then go get some.” He said batting his eyelashes. “I see you already have our list in your hands.”_

_Harry put the list on the counter and slid it over to Louis. “I was hoping you would go actually.”_

_Louis groaned. “Why me? You’re the one cooking!”_

_"Yes but you already got clean and dressed for the day! Please babes? I’ll make you a very big breakfast when you get back." Harry asked, batting his eyelashes to get his way._

_Louis glared for a moment before picking up list and slinking out of the chair. “Fine! I’ll go, but you owe me.”_

_"Of course love." Harry walked Louis to the door and kissed him one final time, longer than he normally would for such a short trip for Louis. "I love you."_

_It was serious, warm, and an ‘I love you’ that Harry hoped would suffice for what he knew would be coming for Louis later that day. And Louis looked puzzled at Harry’s tone, but he nodded his head and returned the sentiment before leaving, closing the door behind himself._

_Harry stared at the door for what felt like hours. He wasn’t ready for this. Not at all. All the same it had to be done. He cleaned out the entire place, leaving almost no trace of himself behind but for his secret phone and one sentence note for Louis._

~~~

_**Meet me COMPLETELY ALONE on Thursday, 8 pm, at the address at the end of this letter. I will tell you everything but you cannot bring anyone else. Not even back up. I just don’t know who has already turned to them by now. If I even think anyone is with you, I’ll run again, but for god this time. I can’t risk it when you could be hurt.** _

It was cold that night as Louis walked along the darkened street all on his own. Every now and then he thought he heard a noise from behind and he would stop to hide and look around. He made sure to leave when he knew the rest of his team were all together and not looking for him. They hadn’t asked about the note after that night and Louis was thankful for it. This situation was stressful enough on him.

The address Harry gave him was for an abandoned house a few miles away from where Louis grew up. He told Harry many stories of when he was younger and he and his friends would play pretend in the house, that they were told it was haunted by bad memories. It was a place Louis loved and nobody really knew about it anymore. But here he was.

The door was unlocked, as it had always been, and Louis stepped inside carefully. He remembered tripping over uneven flooring and poking out nails when he used to come at night. The place was so old and decrepit at this point, it was pretty much a death trap. Part of Louis wanted to think that was why Harry brought him here. The other part still had faith that the man he loved was not a liar.

As Louis walked further into the house, he couldn’t find any sign of another person being in there with him. He stopped in what was probably the living room back when this house was in better condition, and leaned back against one of the walls, and taking the letter out of his pocket to read over again.

8 o’clock on the dot came and Louis looked around the dark house again. It was only a few minutes later that a flashlight shined in the next room over. Louis reached a hand to the gun in his back pocket and turned off the safety before peering around the corner.

"Louis?"

And there it was. The deep voice he knew so well, that made his ears buzz and his chest hurt. Louis’ eyes widened and his heartbeat sped up times a million. It was hard to even breathe and he could probably collapse at any second. But then Harry was walking through the hallway and stopping dead in his tracks when they made eye contact.

His face was bruised and his hair was a mess. He had dark circles under his bloodshot eyes and his clothes were burned in several places, as well as being covered in dirt. Yet Louis couldn’t help but think he was still beautiful. Underneath all that grime was the Harry Styles that had Louis at first sight. It was awful.

Harry raised his hands up to show he was unarmed and slowly stepped closer to Louis, eyes slipping down to the gun in his shaking hands. “Louis, I know you aren’t going to shoot me.”

He was right, of course, but Louis kept his guard up anyway. “Maybe, but then again I thought I knew everything about you and boy was I fucking wrong.”

Louis could practically see the hurt flash in Harry’s eyes, but he didn’t back down. Instead Louis watched as Harry took another step up to him and placed one of his hands on the end of the pointed gun. He made sure Louis was lowering it before he moved closer and with his other hand, removed it from Louis’. They both let out long breaths and Louis fell back against the wall. Harry threw the gun behind him and caught Louis in time to help him fall into an old chair.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked when he felt Louis shaking in his arms and saw the beginnings of tears shine in his eyes. But Louis just stared blankly at his now empty hands, trying to keep himself together and ignore Harry’s obvious concern. Because that couldn’t possibly be real right?

Harry sighed and crouched in front of Louis on the ground, sitting on his knees. He wanted so badly to just pull him into his arms and kiss him and tell him everything he had done and just prove he still loved him, that he always loved him. However, it was plainly obvious that if Harry did that Louis would probably kill him. This whole thing had to be done carefully.

"Did you come alone?"

Louis nods.

"Are you sure?"

Louis nodded again.

"Are you absolutely sure nobody followed you?"

Louis snapped his head up and sneered at Harry. “Yes I am fucking sure I came here alone! I didn’t show anyone the fucking letter and I made sure they didn’t know I was leaving for fucks sake!”

Harry smirked out of instinct. He couldn’t help that Louis was still when he was mad. “Got you talking babes.”

Louis sputtered and pushed Harry away from him, but didn’t make any move to go after his gun again. “Do not call me that. I’m here for fucking answers and I intend on fucking getting them.”

This made Harry take another deep breath and rub one of his hands behind his neck. “I don’t quite know where to start.”

"How about when you became a traitor hmm?" Louis snapped.

Harry’s hands clenched into fists and his jaw hardened. “Louis, I’m going to say a lot of things right now but you need to know that the main point of all of it is that _I am not a traitor._ ” Harry stood up quickly and walked to one of the chairs on the other side of the room, sitting down and leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “All of this starts before we were even partners. This past month and a half of me running and making you chase me and those ridiculous messages starts with you and Grimshaw.”

Louis’ eyes softened at the sound of his old partner’s name. Nick Grimshaw was his friend and mentor when he first started at MI6, but he was assassinated by Ring members. Louis didn’t even know why and he spent the better part of a year trying to find out.

"Grimshaw was a recruited agent into the Ring. Or at least they wanted him to be." Harry explained. "He tried to pretend as if he was participating in their tests and really was willing to join their forces, but he was tracking them. He was trying to find out who was running them and then destroy them from the inside. But he wasn’t as secretive about it as he thought. He didn’t know who to trust with the information and let it slip to the wrong people just what he was doing. So the Ring got rid of him."

Harry stopped for a moment so Louis could breathe. “H-how do you know all of that?”

"I’ll get to that, just take a moment. I know this is a lot to process."

After a few minutes Louis nodded so Harry could continue. “Okay. Well, about a month after getting assigned to be your new partner, I was contacted by an anonymous Ring member. Of course I would never join them, you have to know that Louis. I would never betray my country, nor you.”

Louis snorted at that, but Harry ignored it and moved on.

"But like your previous partner I took this as an opportunity to find out who was behind their operations. I-I thought the more tests I completed and missions I did for them, then the closer I would be to gaining access to their organization." Harry stood up and started pacing the room. "This was going on for years and I wanted to tell you. Every day when I fell more and more in love with I wanted to tell you everything. But I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t live with myself if they hurt you because of me."

"Trust me it wasn’t them that hurt me." Louis mumbled.

Harry found that one a little harder to ignore. He stopped pacing in front of Louis, chewing on his bottom lip as he looked down at him. “I’m sorry babes, I’m so sorry. B-But I was getting close, very close and then in my own searches about them I found out something about you. You searched for months for the same thing Nick and I did. And you don’t know this, but you got closer to finding out about them then either of us did. But you stopped looking, I know that. I don’t know why, but you did.”

Louis looked up at him, he was holding back something important, Harry could tell. But still Louis kept quiet and let Harry continue with his explanation.

"But it doesn’t matter if you stopped looking because you were already on their list." Harry’s voice lowered. "The night before I… went rogue I guess is the best thing to call it… I got a call from them. i think you found my phone for them? It was how we communicated without being traced. Well, my connection called me with my final test. Louis… They wanted me to kill you."

And Louis knew he should have had a better reaction than just blinking at Harry. Because Harry looked like he was ready to die just by saying those words, but Louis still needed more than that. He needed to know why the past weeks of chasing happened.

Harry seemed to understand this, because he sat down on the ground by Louis and kept talking. “It was the worst possible thing to ever happen, but to be completely honest, I did see it coming. I set a program in my computer that would release my Ring file to our superiors without being able to be traced. I needed to run so that they wouldn’t hurt you, because if it wasn’t me that killed you then they would, and it would be more painful than anything you ever experienced.”

Louis quirked one of his eyebrows as if to challenge that claim.

"Yes even more painful than Beirut. I made sure they knew I was being hunted so they wouldn’t get to you. It also kept you under constant watch and safety so the Ring couldn’t take you either." He’d hoped that last bit would make Louis loosen up a bit, but his demeanor hadn’t changed. "So, I’m on the run. The Ring doesn’t know that I’m rogue yet and that gives me a little while to break into their headquarters. Before you say anything, they didn’t tell me where it was, I found that out myself. And I got it. All the information I needed. Names, operations, locations, all of it. I downloaded so many files and I put them all here." Harry pulled up the chain underneath his shirt to reveal a chunky cross charm. He twisted the top and pulled down the bottom half, that was actually a small flash drive. "Everything we will need to take them apart is all on here. Also all the proof I need to show I’m innocent."

Harry dangled the necklace in front of Louis’ face with one hand, and with the other he picked up on of Louis’. He flipped the hand over so he could lower the necklace into Louis’ palm. Louis closed his hand on it and brought it in close to his chest. “Y-you still haven’t told my why you sent me on this chase.”

"It wasn’t exactly easy for me to get that information. The Ring found out about my work status and shut down all walls with me. I was named an enemy of both sides. I knew you would be put on the case to come after me and I was happy about that. But I didn’t want you to lose faith in me. I didn’t want you to forget about us and how we felt about each other.

"I needed you to stay on my case until now, until I had everything I needed to expose the Ring. But let’s face it, I’m very good at staying hidden. Not even you could find me if I didn’t want you to. I wanted to make sure you were the only one who could track me, so I left those clues specifically for you to solve. And n-now you’re here and it’s all going to be okay! Right?"

Louis opened his hand again to get a better look at the cross. He began to cry because it was too much. His Harry being back with him but also with a million secrets. And all of it to protect Louis from so many things that he didn’t even know about. All this time he thought he knew the very long list of people who would want to kill him, but this opened his eyes to so many more. All of his walls were crashing down just when they should have been up and guarded the most and he cried. He sobbed into Harry’s open arms, unable to keep his emotions under control. Something he hadn’t been able to do for weeks.

But then his sobs turned into screams and when Harry wrapped his arms around Louis to comfort him, he started shaking and thrashing about violently. He couldn’t breathe again, but he couldn’t stop yelling. And Harry just let him get it all out.

What Louis didn’t see, what neither of them saw, was Zayn. Zayn who had followed Louis on his orders from Liam. Zayn who had his long range rifle with him while he sat outside, a few meters away from the house. Zayn who was watching the exchange in the house but hadn’t heard any of it because of how far away he was. Zayn who thought Louis’ screams were cries for help.

Zayn, who pulled the trigger on his friend.

Louis did hear the shot through his screams and he felt Harry slump down in his arms. He saw the red seep down onto his hand that was on Harry’s back.

"L-Louis?" Harry gasped, eyes darkened and back burning in pain. "W-why?"

Louis shook his head and grabbed Harry’s face. “N-no I promise you! This wasn’t me Harry. I-I didn’t know, oh god! Please! I love you, I love you so much!”

Harry would have smiled if he didn’t find it hard to keep his eyes open. He clawed for balance on Louis, but fell to the ground. It wasn’t a direct hit, but it was enough take Harry out. “Louis h-help.”

"S-stay with me Harry, please don’t leave me! Not again! I believe you, okay? I know you’re not a traitor, I never believed that! I love you, s-so you have to stay with me!" Louis begged for Harry to stay conscious but it was too late.

~~~

Harry wakes up 24 hours later on an uncomfortable hospital bed, but certainly not in a hospital. He had a poorly wrapped bandage going around his shoulder and chest, keeping him whole but still in pain. He blinked a couple of times and found that he couldn’t quite move his head, so his eyes darted around the room. He was in a holding cell in the basement of MI6 HQ, and Louis was asleep on the bench just outside.

"Louis." Harry wanted to shout, but his voice was coarse and barely a whisper. "Louis. Babes!"

Louis stirred and rolled over, almost falling off the bench, but at least it woke him up. He looked inside Harry’s cell and his eyes widened when he saw the he was awake. “Harry?”

There was an argument between Luis and the guard, but soon enough he was unlocking the cell and Louis was running inside. He immediately slung an arm around Harry’s stomach, as to avoid his injury, and kissed all over his face. Harry tried to laugh but it hurt him too much. “Lou. It hurts babes.”

"Sorry! Oh god I’m so happy you’re awake. I wanted to take you to a hospital but Liam said we couldn’t, that you had to stay here. A-and I said we owed you because they weren’t supposed to know where we were in the first place. And you getting shot was never supposed to happen, but Liam said we had to follow protocol until you were completely cleared of any charges and—"

"Lou! Babes slow down for me." Harry pleaded. "Did you say Liam? As in Liam Payne?"

Louis paused, looking at Harry questioningly. “Erm, yes…? He was put in charge of the mission after Zayn, Niall, and I couldn’t find you soon enough.”

"Shit!" Harry tried to shout, but his voice was too rough. "Where’s the necklace? Have you shown it to anyone?"

"N-no, I mean, I told Niall, but this whole, Zayn shooting you thing has sort of caused a lot of shit here. I haven’t had time to turn it in. But I have it here." Louis pulled the chain out of his shirt to show Harry the cross. "W-why?"

"Louis, listen to me." Harry sat up, groaning in pain from his wound. "We have to get to the top floor. We have to get that to the superiors before anyone else gets to it."

"Harry what’s going on?" Louis asked, helping Harry get out of the bed. "Why did you ask about Liam?"

"Because he’s _it_ Louis. He’s the leader of the Ring. And I was going to tell you at the house, but there’s no time anymore.” Harry started limping to the door and Louis followed, helping Harry balance on his shoulders.

"You can’t be serious! _Liam?_ ”

"Right. Me." Liam stood in the middle of the holding cell hall, bloody knife in hand and the body of the guard at his feet. "You two little shits have caused me a lot of headaches over the years."

Louis almost dropped Harry when he saw Liam glaring at them. “I-I don’t understand.”

"Well don’t expect me to start my evil monologue Louis." Liam stated, a sick grin coming over his features. He dropped the knife and pulled out his pistol from its holster under his jacket, before pressing his finger to his earpiece. "We have a security breach in the holding cells. Agent Tomlinson has gone rogue and is trying to help Styles escape. Send everyone you can."

Louis swore and started dragging Harry down the hallway, both of them running as fast as they could with Harry’s injury. Liam hadn’t started chasing them yet, but they could hear other agents running down the stairs to come after them for back up. “Harry what do we do?”

"We have to get to the top floor. Give the flash drive to the director so they can see all my proof and take Liam into custody." Harry grunted and knocked Louis into one of the rooms. Some agents and guards ran past the door, not able to see them, so they stayed hidden.

After a few moments Louis looked out to see the hallway was empty, but he could hear Liam yelling not too far away. Something about how they should have been caught by now, but Louis was more concerned by how much closer the voices were getting. He turned around and looked back down at Harry, who was curled up on the ground and clutching his shoulder in pain.

"Hazza? What’s wrong?" Louis asked desperately, crouching down and rubbing Harry’s back.

"It’s nothing babes, but what the hell did the doctor do for me?" Harry asked, pressing down on the bloodstained bandages.

"They removed the bullet and then gave you some stitches, but obviously it wasn’t very well done. I bet that was Liam’s doing." Louis said, kissing Harry’s cheek to comfort him. "Can you stand?" Harry nodded. "Good, because I think we need to run again."

Louis helped Harry stumble off the ground, and Harry slung one of his arms back over Louis’ shoulder to keep balanced. They limped to the door and Louis looked out to make sure it was clear, and they jogged down the hallway to get to the stairs. The other agents rounded the corner behind them, with Liam at the head.

"Babes, I can run, you go left and I’ll go right. They’ll go after me first and that should give you more time to get to the stairs." Harry said, pushing Louis towards the other side of the hall.

"I’m not leaving you Harry! You’re already hurt and Liam will kill you!" Louis shouted.

But Harry was already stumbling down his side of the hall. “Just go Lou!”

Louis didn’t want to leave him but he knew Harry was right. It was so important for everyone that Louis get the necklace to the director. He ran down the right side of the hall and darted over the tile as fast as he could. Liam went with half the agents to get Harry, which meant less competent people for following Louis.

Turn after turn Luis ran, but these halls were made long and complicated in case an actual prisoner were to escape. Louis realized he could make a full circle at one point and probably get back to Harry in time to keep him safe. But he needed to deliver the necklace.

Then Louis grabbed his phone out of his pocket and called the only person he ever thought to trust. “Niall? Please tell me you’re at HQ?”

“ _Louis?_ ” he was whispering, “ _Yeah I’m at fucking HQ! And I should be tracing your call and turning you in! What the hell is going on?_ ”

"There’s no time to explain! I need you to meet me at the stairs to the holding cells and bring me a gun and some extra rounds. Can you do this for me?"

_“I don’t think I can. This whole place is on lockdown and they say you’re trying to go rogue!”_

Louis groaned in frustration. “Do you really think I would do that? Niall, I have something that can prove Harry’s innocence, but I need to save him first! Can you bring me what I need or not?”

_“How can I believe you?”_

"You’ve always trusted me Ni! Don’t you trust me now in my hour of need?"

_“Yeah, of course Louis. I’m already on my way.”_

Not even a minute later Louis found himself crouching behind an over turned table by the entrance to the stairwell. With no gun and a small chance that Niall wouldn’t call anyone to arrest him, Louis was still hiding out from the other guards that had chased him. But then there was a knock on the door behind him and Louis looked up to see Niall waiving at him.

He opened the door just enough for Niall to hand him what he needed and then he loaded his gun. Niall ran back up when he was sure Louis had everything under control, and the latter agent took two shots to get the agents who were firing at him. They both went down, but there were already more on their way over, so Louis shoved the table in their direction and took off down the other hall.

He went the long way around the holding cells so he could be double backed over to the hallway Harry had gone down earlier. There didn’t seem to be anyone there and Louis was confused until he saw a trail of blood leading into one of the weapons closets. Louis opened the door to the closet carefully, gun held up in front of himself, but found it empty with the air duct door open. Harry must have crawled through, which meant he could reach anywhere.

Louis figured since there wasn’t any noise coming from the tunnel and Liam was nowhere to be found, that meant he didn’t follow Harry in there. Rather he must have taken a different route through the halls to cut Harry off wherever he came out. Louis was smarter than that though. He knew Harry would have thought of every possible solution upon entering the duct. So Louis put the gun in his back holster and crawled in just like Harry.

The trail of blood droplets continues in the duct , and Louis follows them for a few turns. It takes a couple of minutes until Louis sees a figure lying at the end of the tunnel and he realized it was Harry passed out. He crawled faster until he had reached Harry’s body, pulling him into his grip and checking his face.

"Hazza? Come on Harry not again! Not fucking again!" Louis shouted. He slapped Harry a couple of times, begging him to wake up.

Harry coughed a couple of times and blinked until Louis came fully into focus. He smiled until his eyes settled on the chain on Louis’ neck. “You still have the necklace?”

"I wasn’t about to leave you here to get killed!" Louis giggled and kissed Harry’s forehead.

"You getting that upstairs is more important than anything right now babes." Harry whispered, bringing one of his hands up to Louis’ cheeks.

But Louis just rolled his eyes. “What were you going to do though? Hide in here until the director called off the orders against you? You’re lucky I found you.”

"I know this wasn’t my best move, but I knew Liam wouldn’t follow me through so it was the only choice."

"Well, now we’re both stuck dummy."

Harry pouted. “Rude. You should just go ahead of me. There’s a ramp not too far to the left that isn’t too steep. It should take you to the second floor if I remember correctly. You can take the necklace and come back for me.”

"Two things, one; did you memorize the air duct system of our headquarters?" Louis asked and scoffed when Harry nodded. "Okay then, two; I am so tired of leaving you so that is not happening again. Now get off your flat ass and get to crawling again."

Harry turned over and winced as he tried to push himself onto his knees. “Babes I-I can’t”

"Yes you fucking can! You can always push through Hazza now come on!" Louis urged.

It took a couple of tries but Harry was finally able to get off the ground and crawl to the ramp, with Louis helping push him from behind. He wanted to make a joke about how this position was certainly new for them, but gathered that it probably wasn’t the right time. They made their way up the ramp and Louis climbed over Harry to kick open the door to the air duct.

Louis jumped down first, but just as he was helping Harry get down, the door behind them was bursting open. Harry fell down into Louis’ arms and Liam stood behind them, slamming the door shut behind himself. Louis wrapped both arms around Harry to keep him balanced and they turned to look at Liam. They had nowhere and no way to run with him there.

"Fucking finally! I’m going to make this real quick, because I have been going back and forth with this for too long." Liam pulled his gun out of his holster and held it up to them. "Now, which one of you wants to go first?"

"Why the fuck are you doing this Liam? I thought we were friends! I thought you were a good agent! How can you just betray your country like this?" Louis spat.

Liam snickered and rolled his eyes. “I really wish I could say it was more than just money and power… but yeah money and power. I found some other friends that could help me get just that. And needless to say I wasn’t the biggest fan of the way this agency was run. We could be doing so much more with all the intelligence we have gathered, than sit and wait for an attack.”

Louis shook his head and literally spat at Liam’s feet. Payne grunted and took a shot, but his barrel was empty, so he quickly started to reload it. While Liam was distracted Louis whispered in Harry’s ear, “Imate li me?” **Do you have me?**

Harry smirked and kissed Louis’ cheek, reaching his hand down and quickly grabbing the gun from Louis’ back pocket. “Uvijek.” **Always.**

Before Liam even knew what happened, Harry pulled the trigger twice, hitting him once in the shoulder and again in the stomach. He went down and Louis dragged harry to the door. They ran to the elevator at the end of the corridor and quickly hit the button to take them to the top floor. Once the door was closed and they were moving, both agents slumped onto the ground and relaxed every muscle in their bodies.

Louis looked over at Harry and then down between them at their hands. Harry reached over and held Louis’ hand tightly, not wanting to ever let go again. Louis smiled back at him and brought their hands up so he could kiss Harry’s knuckles. “It’s all over.”

"Not quite babes."

~~~

A fresh island breeze blew the grains of sand into swirling patterns at Louis’ feet as he walked back from the bar. They had been at this beach for a week but it would never stop being completely beautiful to Louis.

They sort of took an early retirement after clearing Harry’s name and apprehending Liam back at HQ. There had been a bit of arguing with the director when a bloody and beaten Harry Styles stumbled into his office, but once they opened up the files, it was clear that Harry was very innocent. He and Louis were even given medals of honor for their work dismantling the biggest security breach in MI6 history.

Zayn apologized about a thousand times for shooting Harry, and of course he was forgiven. Niall made it up to them by erasing any data the MI6 system had on them, allowing them to run away to… well they didn’t actually know what this island was that Niall had sent them, but it sure was nice.

They didn’t know how long they would be staying here, but Harry was certainly trying to convince Louis that forever was a good amount of time. Louis was going to agree, but he didn’t feel like telling Harry that just yet.

Louis found Harry asleep on their hammock and he just laughed because for the first time in a long time he was happy and without any worry what so ever. He placed their drinks on the table next to them and maneuvered himself onto the hammock next to him. he kissed along the column of Harry’s neck and over his jaw line, sucking bruises here and there.

Harry finally stirred when Louis began to nibble on his ear, turning his head and smiling sleepily down at him. “What on earth are you doing babes?”

"Oh you know, thinking about you. Kissing you. The usual." Louis said with a giggle.

Harry moved them around until he was on top of Louis, one leg between Louis’ knees. “What about me are you thinking of?”

Louis shrugged, locking his arms behind Harry’s neck. “Remember that time in America when we were undercover, and you were dressed like a total geek?”

"Oh my god, Marcel?" Harry asked, chuckling because Louis was just so cute.

"What? He was cute!" Louis said with a fake pout.

"Sure, sure. Whatever you say babes." Harry leaned down to kiss Louis properly, sucking on his bottom lip and smirking when the smaller man moaned. Harry slipped his tongue in and licked along the roof of Louis’ mouth. Before they could take it any further Harry pulled away with his brow furrowed. "You know, I never figured out why you stopped looking for what happened to Nick?"

Louis let out a frustrated sigh. “Because after a while I stopped being bitter about it. I had other missions and orders to follow and as far as I knew, I was getting nowhere. Oh and there was the little issue of me being completely in love with you, and nothing else past that mattered.”

"Being in love with me was an issue was it?" Harry asked cheekily.

Louis smirked, but blinked up at Harry innocently. “Yes it definitely was. You were very distracting during work.”

"Well none of that work shit is important anymore now." Harry said, kissing Louis again.

And no, it definitely didn’t matter with a bright sun, perfect waives, and nobody left to shoot at them for the rest of their lives.

**_FIN_ **

**Author's Note:**

> Very sorry about the cliffhanger ending but I am a drama queen so...


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